Issues - Unions and Democracy

Unions do far more than negotiate benefits for its own workers. Unions have fought to strengthen public policies that benefit all Americans, both unionized and non-unionized. And as corporate power and influence has skyrocketed in recent years, unions have provided a powerful mechanism for voter turnout that keeps our democracy strong.

Historically, unions have fought to strengthen public policies that benefit all Americans, both unionized and non-unionized. Unions have fought to strengthen minimum wage laws, worker safety protections, and public safety nets. We have unions to thank for the two-day weekend and the 40-hour workweek. More recently, unions have fought to strengthen minimum wage laws, worker safety protections, and public safety nets. Continue...

Our Popular Economics Education Team is co-hosting UFE's renowned Popular Economics Training of Trainers in May 2015 in Aurburndale, MA. We invite organizers, activists, educators, students, and others across the U.S. who want to join and advance the movement for a just economy, to attend.

“We are often told we need to accept the world as it is.” Organizers and activists gathered from around the country, as well as from Mexico and Central America, to reflect on ten years of work together and to chart a path towards a world as we imagine it should be.

For the past few weeks, the nation’s attention has focused on an unlikely epicenter of race relations, a Quik-Trip convenience store about fifteen miles north of St. Louis. It was there that 18-year-old Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was gunned down by a white police officer, and it is there that a groundswell of sympathy and frustration has prompted the community, and nation, to act. The town of Ferguson was rocked by this tragic event, and has responded in an incredible way – by organizing.

Our Popular Economics Education Team is co-hosting UFE's renowned Training of Trainers Institute in October 2014 in New Market, TN, with the Highlander Center. We invite organizers, activists, educators, students, and others across the U.S. who want to join and advance the movement for a just economy, to attend.